Row over Vyapam deaths a result of police goofup: CBI

NEWDELHI: The controversy over Vyapam scam-linked deaths erupted as Madhya Pradesh police included the names of dead people as accused in its FIRS registered in the cases related to the admission and recruitment scam, the CBI has found.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was entrusted with looking into the alleged conspiracy to eliminate suspects booked in the admissions and recruitment scam in MP. The probe agency was asked to investigate deaths of 24 individuals.

Among the 24 deaths, 16 took place much before the deceased were booked in the scam by the state police, the probe has found, ruling out any conspiracy. The remaining deaths were due to natural causes, the agency said.

The probe has found that there was nothing suspicious about 23 deaths in which 15 preliminary enquiries were registered by the CBI. All the 15 enquiries have been closed by the agency. NEW DELHI: This past fortnight, I have been thinking about environmental governance.

Till the 1990s, the government set up rules, and people were supposed to follow them.

Then, the era of public interest litigations (PIL) dawned. They were broad, ambitious and angry. Looking back, I am not sure they really made any difference.

Both before and after the 1990s, peoples’ movements brought all kinds of projects to the public and government notice — the movement against destroying the Silent Valley, Narmada Bachao Andolan and movement to stop the Doon Valley quarrying — these made deep changes.

Today, people’s movements have largely changed from asking for justice and equity for the poor to asking for both these and